John Harbaugh on Lamar Jackson: I don't know how any of us would respond to that fan

The Bills made it known earlier on Monday that the fan who shoved Ravens receiver DeAndre Hopkins and quarterback Lamar Jackson has been indefinitely banned from all NFL stadiums.

Ravens head coach John Harbaugh was asked about that interaction in his press conference earlier on Monday and told reporters that he hadn’t heard from the league.

“My take on it is — and all I know is what I’ve read afterwards — is Lamar is down there celebrating a touchdown with his teammates just like you’re supposed to do,” Harbaugh said, via transcript from the team. “We talk about celebrations — we want our guys to celebrate with one another. That’s the whole idea. I guess I didn’t know that you’re not allowed to go close to the stands to do that without being attacked by a fan. If you score a touchdown, you probably shouldn’t have a frozen water bottle thrown at you, either. So, these are the types of things that I’m sure the NFL is going to address and deal with.

“It’s unfortunate that [he] should even be in that situation. I don’t know how any of us would respond in that moment. I think it’d be something [where] we’d probably be thinking about protecting ourselves. I do think that. I just think we have to understand that. We can all say, ‘Hey, I’d like to handle it a little better,’ but that’s a surprise when that happens, I think, in that moment. [It] probably [is] for anybody.”

The fact that the fan was banned from all stadiums speaks to just how inappropriate the conduct was on Sunday night. We’ll see if the league will impose any scrutiny on Jackson for his response. But as Harbaugh said, that interaction would probably be a surprise to anybody. In many ways, it’s hard to fault Jackson for his reaction to a fan attacking him and his teammate.